After shipping a record-smashing 74.5 million handsets during the holiday quarter, representing more than half of Apple’s total revenue for the quarter, the Cupertino firm could be poised to move about 50 million iPhone units in the first quarter of this year.

Tuesday, trade publication DigiTimes cited estimates by Taiwanese handset suppliers who expect shipments of iPhone devices to grow from the 43.7 million units in the year-ago quarter to as many as 50 million shipments in Q1 2015, a 14.4 percent annual increase. Read More

Taiwan’s Economic Daily News is reporting tonight that the launch of the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display may be pushed back due to Intel processor delays. The long-rumored hybrid laptop was expected to finally launch later this year.

The problem is, the new MacBook, said to strike a better balance of performance and portability, is believed to be tied to Intel’s 14-nanometer Broadwell chips. These chips have been delayed several times, and now may not land until 2015… Read More

As the iPhone 6 enters production over the next few months, a new report claims that Apple manufacturing partners Foxconn and Pegatron are in the process of recruiting new employees from mainland China. Foxconn in particular is said to be hiring a record-breaking 100,000 employees to help assemble the smartphone, which could be released in both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models… Read More

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars, or roughly $670,000 USD, by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission for interfering with mobile service providers and handset distributors’ pricing.

The Commission found Apple guilty of violating article 18 of the country’s Fair Trade Act after discovering emails from the Cupertino company to Taiwan’s three main service providers, telling them how much their iPhones should sell for… Read More

The New York Times in May said Apple’s favorite contract manufacturer Foxconn was looking beyond the iPhone due to slowing sales of the Apple smartphone caused by the broader tech biz slump. As you know, Foxconn also builds consumer electronics for Sony, Amazon, Dell and many other Western brands.

Conventional wisdom says the manufacturer’s been growing concerned about its reliance on Apple orders accounting for well over half of its total revenues. Today, The Wall Street Journal is out with a report saying Foxconn has teamed up with the convenience store chain 7-Eleven to push its own television sets in Taiwan.

Apple is in the early stages of building its long-rumored television set, working with glassmaker Corning, Foxconn, G-Tech Optoelectronics, Foxconn, and Innolux, according to a new report out of Taiwan this morning.

Citing supply chain sources, the outlet says that the companies all met two weeks ago in the US to discuss the production of Apple’s so-called iTV. The set will come in 55″ and 60″ models, and be available early next year… Read More

Earlier in the month, VR-Zone learned Apple was looking to establish a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan where talented engineers will be working on the next-generation of iPhone product development, reporting directly to Apple’s headquarters in California.

DigiTimes today expands on the story, reporting the company is now actively recruiting engineers to fill a bunch of various roles, including packaging, quality control, hardware and software. Apple’s recruiting efforts are said to have already attracted the attention of many IT engineers in Taiwan… Read More

It is no secret that Apple operates a few research and development centers overseas. In Israel, for instance, the company runs three R&D centers: one in Haifa, another stemming from its acquisition of the flash memory developer Anobit and the third opening soon in the Israeli city of Ra’anana.

Yet another R&D facility is scheduled to open later this year in Pudong, Shanghai and now we learn that an all-new R&D center dedicated to iPhone development will be opening in Taiwan, where most of Apple’s suppliers are located… Read More

According to the latest chatter, Apple of California is looking to introduce new Taiwanese suppliers to its supply chain in a bid to diversify manufacture of iOS devices beyond the current production partners Foxconn and Pegatron.

The development comes just as Foxconn reported better-than-expected June quarter earnings on increased sales of its TV set making business.

Meanwhile, a city in China’s Henan Province is helping Foxconn increase its production capacity and inviting Apple to set up a domestic sales center… Read More

The world’s leading assembler of consumer electronics products and Apple’s favorite contract manufacturer, Foxconn, has submitted an application for a fourth-generation high-speed mobile spectrum license in Taiwan.

It’s the latest in a series of moves by Foxconn to untie its fortunes from Apple, currently accounting for more than half of the manufacturer’s revenue. For those who don’t keep track of these things: Foxconn already operates a chain of retail stores in Asia, makes television sets for Western brands and assembles products for a variety of technology giants (including Dell and Sony)… Read More

It appears that Apple is really interested in securing the ‘iWatch’ trademark on a global scale. Hot on the heels of this morning’s report that it filed for the name in Japan, comes word that it has filed similar paperwork in both Mexico and Taiwan.

And the filings in these three countries follow a bid for the trademark in Russia, which was reported last month. So it would seem that there is at least some truth to the ongoing rumors that Apple is working on a wearable, smartwatch-like device… Read More

There is a ripple effect underway in the smartphone industry. As consumers shift from high-priced smartphones to basic lower-cost alternatives, companies such as Apple look to produce lower-priced handsets. The latest in line are manufacturers, such as Foxconn, which for years has tied its profit wagon to Apple’s success. Now comes word Foxconn’s parent company seeks to diversify into e-commerce and perhaps licensing its vast library of patents… Read More

If a report published Monday by Focus Taiwan is to be trusted, Taiwanese should have a chance to get their hands on the iPhone 5 starting December 14. Local carriers Far Eastone Telecommunications, Taiwan Mobile and Chunghwa Telecom all confirmed they are in the final stages of signing a distribution agreement with Apple as the sides are apparently working out the details. Taiwan’s carriers plan to start taking pre-orders for the device a week before the planned December 14 launch… Read More

Trashing Apple’s iOS 6 Maps has become a norm these days, so it’s good to know that some people are quite concerned by the precision and quality of satellite imagery Apple’s using for the feature. According to a new report, The Taiwanese government wants Apple to blur the images of its brand spanking new early warning radar station, located near the Hsinchu Airbase in northern Taiwan and worth $1.4 billion… Read More